The angel who rolled away the stone
Celsus also finds fault with the account which says that an angel rolled away “the stone” (Matthew 28:2) from the tomb where the body of Jesus lay. He goes about it like a schoolboy who has been set, as a classroom exercise, to accuse someone from the stock headings of rhetoric. And as though he had hit upon something clever against the account, he says: “The child of God, it seems, could not open the tomb, but needed someone else to move the rock away.”
I do not want to labour over the details of the passage, nor to seem to philosophize out of season by setting out a figurative interpretation at this point. So I will speak of the narrative itself. On its face it appears more dignified that the lesser one, the servant, should have rolled away “the stone” than that he who was rising for the benefit of human beings should have done it himself. Not to mention that those who plotted against the Word, who wanted to kill him and to show everyone that he was dead and nothing at all, wanted his tomb never to be opened, so that no one might see the Word alive after their plot. But the angel of God, who comes for the salvation of human beings as fellow worker of the Angel, is stronger than the plotters and rolls away the heavy stone. He does this so that those who think the Word is dead may be persuaded that he “is not among the dead” (Luke 24:5–6) but lives and “goes before” (Matthew 28:7) those who wish to follow him. And he goes before them in order to show them what follows on from what he showed them earlier, when, in the first stage of their instruction, they could not yet take in things greater than those.
Then, after this, he somehow throws in, though I do not know what use he thinks it serves his purpose, the story that an angel came to Joseph about Mary when she was with child (Matthew 1:20), and again an angel came so that they would snatch away the newborn child, who was being plotted against, and flee into Egypt (Matthew 2:13). We have already discussed these matters above, in answer to what he said.
And what is Celsus driving at with the fact that the Scriptures record angels being sent to Moses and to the others? It seems to me to contribute nothing to what he wants, especially since none of those angels contended on behalf of the human race to turn it, as far as was possible, from its sins. Grant, then, that others too were sent from God. Let this one proclaim something more. And since the Jews were going astray, debasing true religion, and doing what is unholy, let him hand over the kingdom of God to “other farmers” (Matthew 21:41, 43): to those who everywhere in the churches keep watch over themselves and do everything they can, by a pure life and by words that agree with that life, to bring to the God of all the starting points they have drawn from the teaching of Jesus.
Greek
Κατηγορεῖ δ᾿ ὁ Κέλσος καὶ τοῦ φάσκοντος λόγου ἄγγελον ἀποκεκυλικέναι τοῦ τάφου, ἔνθα ἦν τὸ Ἰησοῦ σῶμα, „τὸν λίθον“ ὥσπερ μειράκιον, ἐν διατριβῇ λαβὸν τοπικῶς κατηγορῆσαί τινος, καί φησιν ὡς σοφόν τι κατὰ τοῦ λόγου εὑρὼν [καί φησιν] ὅτι ὁ τοῦ θεοῦ παῖς, ὡς ἔοικεν, οὐκ ἐδύνατο ἀνοῖξαι τὸν τάφον, ἀλλ᾿ ἐδεήθη ἄλλου ἀποκινήσοντος τὴν πέτραν. καὶ ἵνα γε μηδὲν περιεργάσωμαι περὶ τῶν κατὰ τὸν τόπον μηδὲ τροπολογίαν ἐπὶ τοῦ παρόντος ἐκτιθέμενος δόξω ἀκαίρως εἰς ταῦτα φιλοσοφεῖν, περὶ αὐτῆς ἐρῶ τῆς ἱστορίας ὅτι σεμνότερον αὐτόθεν φαίνεται τὸ τὸν ἐλάττονα καὶ ὑπηρέτην ἀποκεκυλικέναι „τὸν λίθον“ ἢ τὸν ἐπὶ ὠφελείᾳ ἀνθρώπων ἀνιστάμενον τοῦτο πεποιηκέναι. οὐ λέγω δ᾿ ὅτι οἱ μὲν τῷ λόγῳ ἐπιβουλεύοντες καὶ ἀποκτεῖναι αὐτὸν βουληθέντες καὶ δεῖξαι πᾶσι νεκρὸν καὶ τὸ μηδὲν τυγχάνοντα βούλονται αὐτοῦ μηδαμῶς ἀνοιχθῆναι τὸν τάφον, ἵνα μηδεὶς τὸν λόγον μετὰ τὴν ἐπιβουλὴν αὐτῶν ζῶντα θεάσηται· ὁ δὲ ὑπὲρ σωτηρίας ἀνθρώπων ἐπιδημῶν συνεργὸς τοῦ ἀγγέλου ἄγγελος θεοῦ ἰσχυρότερος ὢν τῶν ἐπιβουλευόντων ἀποκυλίει τὸν βαρὺν λίθον· ἵνα πεισθῶσιν οἱ νομίζοντες τεθνηκέναι τὸν λόγον ὅτι „οὐκ ἔστι“ „μετὰ τῶν νεκρῶν“ ἀλλὰ ζῇ καὶ „προάγει“ τοὺς βουλομένους αὐτῷ ἀκολουθεῖν, ἵνα ἐπιδείξηται τὰ ἑξῆς οἷς ἐπεδείξατο πρότερον, τοῖς μὴ χωροῦσί πω αὐτῶν μείζονα κατὰ τὸν πρότερον τῆς εἰσαγωγῆς αὐτῶν χρόνον. εἶτ᾿ οὐκ οἶδ᾿ ὅπως μετὰ ταῦτα παραῤῥίπτει, οὐκ οἶδα εἰς τί τῇ προθέσει αὐτοῦ χρήσιμον εἶναι δοκοῦν, τὸ περὶ τῆς Μαρίας κυούσης ἐληλυθέναι πρὸς τὸν Ἰωσὴφ ἄγγελον καὶ πάλιν ὑπὲρ τοῦ τὸ βρέφος γεννηθὲν καὶ ἐπιβου λευόμενον ἐξαρπάσαντας φυγεῖν εἰς Αἴγυπτον. περὶ τούτων δὲ καὶ ἐν τοῖς ἀνωτέρω πρὸς τὰ ὑπ᾿ αὐτοῦ εἰρημένα διελέχθημεν. τί δὲ βούλεται Κέλσῳ (τὸ) καὶ Μωϋσεῖ καὶ τοῖς ἄλλοις ἱστορεῖσθαι κατὰ τὰς γραφὰς ἀγγέλους πέμπεσθαι; οὐδὲν γάρ μοι φαίνεται συμβάλλεσθαι αὐτῷ πρὸς ὃ βούλεται, καὶ μάλιστα ἐπεὶ οὐδεὶς μὲν ἐκείνων περὶ τοῦ γένους τῶν ἀνθρώπων ἠγωνίσατο, ἵν᾿ αὐτὸ ἐπιστρέψῃ ὅση δύναμις ἀπὸ τῶν ἁμαρτημάτων. καὶ ἄλλοι οὖν πεπέμφθωσαν ἀπὸ τοῦ θεοῦ, καὶ οὗτός τι πλέον ἀπαγγελλέτω, καὶ πλημμελούντων Ἰουδαίων καὶ μεταχαραττόντων τὴν εὐσέβειαν καὶ οὐχ ὅσια δρώντων τὴν βασιλείαν τοῦ θεοῦ μεταδεδωκέτω „ἄλλοις γεωργοῖς,“ τοῖς πανταχοῦ ἐν ταῖς ἐκκλησίαις ἑαυτῶν ἐπιμελουμένοις καὶ πάντα πράττουσιν ὑπὲρ τοῦ τὰς ἀπὸ τῆς διδασκαλίας τοῦ Ἰησοῦ ἀφορμὰς προσαγαγεῖν διὰ βίου καθαροῦ καὶ λόγου ἀκολούθου τῷ βίῳ πρὸς τὸν τῶν ὅλων θεόν.